Columbus Day: Time To Apologize To Native Americans?

Columbus discovered a new world…to him. But it wasn’t a new world to the Native Americans already here. Now there is a Senate bill that offers Native Americans a formal apology.

“I am pleased that the Senate approved this important language,” bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., said, adding he would work to ensure the language stays in the bill when it goes to conference committee. “Our nation has waited far too long to make this official apology to the native peoples in Oklahoma and the U.S.”

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., the resolution’s Senate sponsor, said the measure would seek reconciliation and would offer an official apology to Native Americans across the country “for the hurtful choices the federal government made in the past.”

Brownback and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said the resolution would not authorize or act as a settlement of claims against the United States.